Compositions useful as builders, dispersants or sequestrants are well-known in the art and have widely ranging chemical compositions. See, for example, Berth et al, Angew. Chem. Internat. Edit., Vol. 14, 1975, pages 94-102. Users of commercially available detergents recognize the utility of such materials in the laundry. It is difficult and somewhat arbitrary to categorize the useful compounds by names such as "builder", "dispersant" or "sequestrant", since many art-disclosed compounds have varying combinations of these useful properties, and are widely used in commerce for many purposes, including boiler scale control and water-softening. Nonetheless, experts in the art recognize that such terms reflect real differences in the properties of the compounds; certain compounds, for example, being distinctly better when used at high levels in a builder function, and others, such as polyacrylates, being better in a low-usage role of dispersant. See, for example, P. Zini, "The Use of Acrylic Based Homo- and Copolymers as Detergent Additives", Seifen-Ole-Fette-Wachse, Vol. 113, 1987, pages 45-48 and 187-189. The search for economical new materials having desirable combinations of such attributes thus continues, and the most effective test of their utility is in the simple operation of laundering fabrics.